National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy: Human Capital and the NSPS

Transcription

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2 Maritime Security Occasional Paper No. 18 National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy: Human Capital and the NSPS Proceedings of the Maritime Security Program Workshop Dalhousie University 14 November 2014 Edited by Ian Wood Prepared by Tim Dunne Copyright 2015, Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, Dalhousie University.

3 A Workforce Plan Brian McCarthy Table of Contents LIST OF ACRONYMS iii INTRODUCTION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THEME 1: BUILDING HUMAN CAPITAL Education and Training Programs An Overview of Select Technical Capabilities and Activities Ronald Pelot Transforming the Labour Force to Meet the Demands of an Emerging Shipbuilding Industry Rosaline Penfound Nova Scotia Provincial Programs and Perspectives Building Human Capital: Skills Development John Somers Human Capital Duff Montgomerie Industry Perspectives Advancing Human Potential Roddy Warnock THEME 2: NEW TRENDS IN MARITIME CREWING Decision Support for RCN Crewing Renée Chow A Practitioner s View Lieutenant-Commander Ramona Burke Reduced Crewing: Design Considerations Bernd Kulmus Exploring New Trends in the Crewing of Modern Warships Nelly Chouvy THEME 3: SUSTAINING HUMAN CAPITAL: THE LONG VIEW A Strong Workforce Vice-Admiral (Ret d) Peter Cairns Shipbuilding Research: A Systems Approach Ken Hansen WORKSHOP PROGRAM ABOUT THE PRESENTERS AND CHAIRS TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR RECENT ISSUES OF CANADIAN NAVAL REVIEW i ii

4 ACOA AOPS AOR AWP CBI CBRN CBT CFITES CFTS CIC CM CO CODELAG COTS CSC DLN DRDC ECDIS EI EPSS ERDT FREMM EW FELEX List of Acronyms Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship Auxiliary Oiler and Replenishment (Ship) Association of Women Professionals Computer-based instruction Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons Computer-based training Canadian Forces Individual Training and Education System Contracted Flying Training and Support Combat Information Centre Corrective maintenance Commanding Officer Combined diesel electric and gas Commercial off-the-shelf Canadian Surface Combatant Defence Learning Network Defence Research and Development Canada Electronic Chart Display and Information System Trainers Employment Insurance Electronic performance support systems Educational Resource Development Trust Frégate Européenne Multi-mission Electronic warfare Frigate Life Extension GED HCM HELO HMCS HR IE ILT ISI ITAR JSS LAE LMDA LMI MCDV MEOPAR MOSID MPIO MTOGS MUN NBC NSAA NSBI NSCC NSPS NSSAL NTS PM RAS RCN RHIB General Educational Development Halifax-class Modernization Program Helicopter Her Majesty s Canadian Ship Human resources Industrial Engineering Instructor-led training Irving Shipbuilding Inc. International Trade in Arms Regulations Joint Support Ship Department of Labour and Advanced Education Labour market development agreements Labour market information Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network Military Occupational Structure Identification Major Initiatives and Project Office Maritime Tactical and Operational Gaming System Memorial University of Newfoundland Nuclear, biological and chemical weapons Nova Scotia Apprenticeship Agency Nova Scotia Business Inc. Nova Scotia Community College National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy Nova Scotia School for Adult Learning Naval Training System Preventive maintenance Replenishment at sea Royal Canadian Navy Rigid-hull inflatable boat iii iv

5 RPLM SAT SCC SCORE SME SPT TIOW TUNS UBC USN USS WBT WIPSI XO Recognition of Prior Learning and Labour Mobility Systems Approach to Training Security Control Centre Simulation for Crew Optimization and Risk Evaluation Small and medium size enterprise Surrogate Partner Training Targeted Initiative for Older Workers Technical University of Nova Scotia University of British Columbia United Stated Navy United States Ship Web-based training Workplace Innovation and Productivity Skills Incentive Executive Officer v vi

6 2 Human Capital and the NSPS Introduction After a very successful National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) workshop entitled Charting the Course held in June 2014, the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies (CFPS) at Dalhousie University undertook a second workshop. This workshop, Human Capital and the NSPS, was held on 14 November 2014 and looked at the personnel considerations behind the NSPS. Unlike other workshops that have examined NSPS from the policy, process and industrial perspectives, this workshop examined the human elements. It focused in particular on the need by government and industry to develop the human capital necessary to build the ships and to address future warship crewing concepts. Given that personnel costs are exceeding over 50% of the budgets of most military organizations, it is vital that we take a more comprehensive look at the human resource issues associated with the NSPS. Research to date on this issue suggests that there is significant risk associated with the personnel aspects of the NSPS, particularly given the planned shift to a long-term and virtually continuous building approach to national shipbuilding. Much time has passed since Canada last built ships for the navy, and this means that the skilled personnel needed for the major construction envisioned under the NSPS will need to be carefully regenerated. The key challenge will be to ensure that the right quality and quantity of personnel will be available over the next 30+ years to meet the needs of the NSPS. In addition to recapitalizing the navy, the NSPS is designed to eliminate the boom-and-bust cycles of shipbuilding that have been characteristic in Canada. And because we are coming out of a bust cycle, both the shipbuilding infrastructure and the personnel need to be rebuilt. Irving and Seaspan are well along the process of updating their facilities, but what about the human dimension? The workshop examined how to ensure that there is a trained workforce and a proper design for the crewing of the ships before steel is cut. The purpose of this workshop was to bring together representatives from industry, academia and government, including the Royal Canadian Navy and international navies, to discuss the potential challenges and issues concerning the human capital dimensions of the NSPS. Chatham House rules were in effect. Media were not invited but follow-on academic research and articles emanating from the discussions are anticipated, with non-attribution in effect per the Chatham House rules. 1

7 4 Human Capital and the NSPS Executive Summary This one-day workshop tackled the personnel issues related to all elements of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS). Three key themes can be drawn from the presentations. The first theme was developing the human capital to build the ships. This theme broke down into three elements: education and training; provincial government programs; and industry perspectives. The first group of presenters, who were from educational institutions, discussed the education and training opportunities that must be created to develop the shipbuilding workforce of the future. Following these presentations we heard from senior Nova Scotia provincial officials about the government plans that are being put in place to stimulate apprenticeships and long-term employment in the shipbuilding sector. The next group of speakers, from industry, discussed the planning that is underway to regenerate the necessary skills and labour for this important new sector. It was refreshing to see that there has been inter-stakeholder discussion on both the East and West Coasts about the human resources necessary to build the ships. However, it was also clear that there needs to be greater national dialogue in Canada about broader labour issues beyond the nascent regional collaboration. Key NSPS human capital issues that arose during the workshop that require further investigation include enhancing labour mobility of skilled trades personnel within Canada, using temporary foreign workers to close the gap while a Canadian labour force is developed, and revitalizing and expanding the worker base in the shipbuilding sector from its traditional demographic. The second theme drawn from the presentations was the novel crewing concepts that must be considered as part of the design and construction of the future fleets. The speakers in this group contained both Canadian and international experts. They spoke about some of the research tools that are being used for crewing designs and shared some valuable international shipbuilding expertise that Canada should consider as it prepares the crews for the new NSPS fleets. The third and last theme that came out of the workshop was the need to sustain the shipbuilding workforce once it has been created. This is a vital topic as the NSPS is envisaged to stimulate over 30 years of shipbuilding work. Given the fact that shipbuilding in Nova Scotia is also a core component of the future economic development and prosperity for the province, there is a need for greater co-development of shipbuilding training initiatives among the various private, public and government stakeholders. Labour-focused governance structures will need to be defined in order to institutionalize these early examples of collaboration. Clearly one of the main challenges will be to transform Canada s marine workforce from a ship-repair to a ship-building capacity by comparing Canadian industry best practices against those of global leaders in the shipbuilding industry. This will involve updating and/or expanding the training and design courses for the trades and professions necessary to build ships. Many of Canada s training methods and systems are out of date, and industry must incorporate the advances in web-based training, distance learning and simulation in order to prepare the human capital that the navy will need in the future. 3

8 Theme 1: Building Human Capital Executive Summary 5 What is involved in building the human capital necessary to make the NSPS successful? The following is a summary of panel presentations in the three elements from this first theme education and training, provincial government programs and industry perspectives. Education and Training In his presentation, An Overview of Select Technical Capabilities and Activities, Dr Ronald Pelot a professor at Dalhousie University, gave a thorough description of the Faculty of Engineering at Dalhousie and in particular the industrial engineering discipline. Industrial engineers design, create and manage systems that integrate people, materials, information and technology. This could include maintenance systems, production systems, scheduling systems, distribution systems, and supply chain management. It is not hard to see how this could relate to major projects such as shipbuilding. With the development of the NSPS, Dalhousie University industrial engineering students should be well positioned both geographically and educationally to participate in the construction of these new fleets of ships. But at the same time Canadian universities such as Dalhousie should continue to develop the attributes of their programs, and continue with the program of cooperative education in the private sector, so as to take full advantage of these professional opportunities Rosaline Penfound, Vice-President Academic at Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), in her presentation entitled Transforming the Labour Force to Meet the Demands of an Emerging Ship-building Industry, outlined how the college is participating in the transformation of the labour force in Nova Scotia to meet the demands of the shipbuilding industry. She described the existing programs of study at NSCC and how the 6 Human Capital and the NSPS graduates of these programs will be well suited to contribute to the work that lies ahead in the NSPS. Given the decreasing population of young people in Nova Scotia, it is important that all youth are given the right skills to participate fully in the labour market and this includes encouraging under-represented groups to take technical/industrial courses and apprenticeships. Community colleges such as NSCC are very keen to adapt and extend their curriculum to provide the graduates necessary to take full advantage of the opportunities and employment that are offered by shipbuilding. In order for community colleges to take advantage of the future they need to engage in strategic partnerships with government and industry. NSCC is already working with the Nova Scotia Apprenticeship Agency to make sure the training and certification system is working, and partnering with private sector stakeholders. Penfound cautioned, however, that there is much work that remains to be done to make sure that a skilled workforce has been trained and is in place when the NSPS begins in earnest. Nova Scotia Provincial Programs and Perspectives John Somers, Senior Executive Director, Department of Labour and Advanced Education for Nova Scotia, was invited to the workshop to provide an overview of the efforts that the province of Nova Scotia is undertaking to assist individuals and groups in the region to enter and to excel in the workplace. His comments, Building Human Capital: Skills Development, were focused on some of the particular programs of interest in the shipbuilding and maritime security sector. He mentioned several provincial programs, including: Apprenticeship Training, which administers certification and harmonizes skills in the province; Employment Nova Scotia, which tries to match employers with employees; and Skill Development, which supports and enables the creation of a skilled workforce that matches the labour needs in the

9 Executive Summary 7 province. Somers also noted that there are labour market agreements with the federal government that are designed to help unemployed people find work and to match workers with the right skills to employers who need them. All of these programs will be helpful to ensure that the NSPS has the workforce it needs. To conclude his presentation, Somers raised some interesting questions that will need to be answered if the human capital issues of the NSPS are to be solved. As Somers noted, one persistent issue is how governments, both federal and provincial, and industry create a long-term sustainable workforce. This has been a problem in the shipbuilding industry which has experienced boom-and-bust cycles in the past. As well, he asked how to attract a new labour force when competing with higher paying industries outside the region. Can government and industry raise the bar for salaries to retain a skilled force? What other incentives can be offered to achieve these ambitions? Clearly there is more work that lies ahead It was a privilege to have Duff Montgomerie, Deputy Minister, Department of Labour and Advanced Education, join in on this workshop. As the Deputy Minister, Montgomerie possesses a broad level of experience allowing him to look across the many programs that have been set in place to enhance the employment and skills development for Nova Scotian workers. In his presentation, Human Capital, the Deputy Minister gave a thorough review of the many strategic partnerships and programs that are being undertaken across Nova Scotia to position the province s workforce under the leadership of the Educational Resource Development Trust (ERDT), the Department of Labour and Advanced Education (LAE) for future engagement in the shipbuilding industry. He made it clear that in addition to provincial programs, most initiatives will also require regional and national cooperation and multi-level stakeholder engagement 8 Human Capital and the NSPS to develop shared objectives and align priorities, resources and support. He explained that the provincial government has created the Major Initiative and Project Office (MIPO) with the objective to maximize economic opportunities provided by the NSPS and other major projects. MIPO focuses on labour and workforce development, supplier development, investment and innovation. He highlighted that private sector engagement with major players like Irving Shipbuilding will be essential to developing the full employment potential of the province s human capital under the NSPS. Industry Perspectives In his presentation, Advancing Human Potential, Dr. Roddy Warnock, Senior Instructional Designer at Bluedrop Performance Learning, introduced some of the new methods that can be applied when training members of the Canadian Armed Forces to operate existing equipment, and new equipment that will come through the NSPS. He suggested that future training might be delivered more effectively and affordably if the customer (i.e., the navy in this example) shared the training load with professional companies such as Bluedrop, which already has a great deal of experience working with Canada s military. In this way the customer could use its own military subject matter experts to establish high training standards and ensure that they are met, while delegating the actual instruction and training equipment maintenance and overhead expenses to private companies. Warnock suggested that training for new equipment could be undertaken in a variety of ways, from in-person courses to online material and 3-D gaming. Future work in this area will need to be undertaken to determine if this is an effective method of training and whether it is in fact less expensive over the lifecycle of the equipment involved in the training. Warnock s presentation pointed to some of the benefits of this approach given the

10 Executive Summary 9 numerous new types of equipment that will be introduced during the NSPS fleet modernization. In his presentation, A Workforce Plan, the Irving Shipbuilding Inc. (ISI) Vice-president for Human Resources, Brian McCarthy, gave a detailed account of how ISI intends to manage its existing labour capacity and also how it intends to find new staff to meet the needs of shipbuilding in the yard over the coming decades. The lack of shipbuilding talent has been recognized during the NSPS process, the objective of which is to support marine industry and revitalize Canadian shipyards so ships can be built in Canada. McCarthy discussed ISI s approach to recruiting employees, in particular the effort to convince skilled Nova Scotians who have moved out of the province for work-related reasons to return home. Building the ships will require attracting, recruiting and retaining shipbuilding talent, and this includes work with Nova Scotia Community College to train the appropriate trades, attract skilled workers back to the shipbuilding industry, and possibly use foreign workers until Canadians can be trained. He also highlighted that it is critical that the construction of the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships and the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) begin on time. The Irving workforce plan is predicated on having the right people on site when they are needed. Should the CSC program begin late, the people working on ship construction will begin to drift away to other regions and ISI will have to start over again to find a skilled workforce. This presentation was the last on the theme of developing the shipbuilding workforce of the future. The presentations were wide ranging and we heard from experts in academia, government and industry. Despite the breadth of the presentations, what seems clear from all of the presentations is that there is very encouraging early work underway. However, while government, industry and the academic world seem to be on the same page 10 Human Capital and the NSPS about what is needed to make sure the human capital element of the NSPS is satisfied, cooperation will need to be undertaken in a more open and collaborative way for the individual efforts to compound their effect. As well, the cooperation will need to extend outside the province of Nova Scotia. This is the view from the Atlantic coast Nova Scotia in particular as one slice of the coast and in future workshops we might want to consider the work that is going on in parallel on the Pacific Coast. In the end the regional opportunities offered by the NSPS to build the workforce of the future will have to be joined up nationally so that the strategy can benefit all of Canada and throughout numerous different industry sectors. Theme 2: New Trends in Maritime Crewing The second theme that became clear during the day was the novel crewing concepts that must be considered as part of the design and construction of the future fleets. The speakers in this group contained both Canadian and international experts. They discussed some of the research tools that are being used for crewing designs and shared some valuable international shipbuilding expertise that Canada should consider as it prepares the crews for the new NSPS ships. The presentations in this theme highlighted that in future warships crew size and skills composition must be looked at as key contributors to the overall operational effectiveness of naval platforms. Early research on optimized crewing focused too much on minimum manning and the effectiveness of this strategy is now being questioned. In the French and German cases the reduced manning levels were mandated by the government early in the design phase, but it has since been discovered that the reduced crews may have led to reduced effectiveness and

11 Executive Summary 11 endurance of the ships. After a period of trial, these navies had to increase the crews to achieve the mission capabilities for which the ships had been built. The RCN has begun to take delivery of the ships coming out of the Halifax-class Modernization (HCM) program. This program will enhance and extend the viability of the Halifax-class frigates for decades. While the RCN waits for the next classes of ships to be delivered, it has a good opportunity to study the effects that the advanced automation and enhanced weapons systems in the HCM ships may offer in terms of future crewing strategies. In the presentations here, RCN staff and defence research scientists explain how they have collaborated to ensure that modern research techniques have been incorporated into the crewing studies for the Harry DeWolf-class Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships. This section includes a summary of the presentations from the second theme. The first two presentations were valuable because they included the perspectives of both a Canadian scientist and an experienced Royal Canadian Navy officer on the question of how to ensure that the new classes of ships have the right number and type of personnel. This type of collaborative operations research will be essential as the new ships are introduced under the NSPS. In her presentation, Decision Support for RCN Crewing, Dr. Renée Chow from Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) discussed the importance of getting the crew size right for a ship. She made it clear that the problem is determining what exactly right is. And as the NSPS proceeds, it will be essential to make sure the crews are the right size for the new classes of ships. If the crews are too big or too small, the ships will not be as operationally effective as they could be. She outlined a decision-support process that has been developed for 12 Human Capital and the NSPS the RCN by defence scientists Simulation for Crew Optimization and Risk Evaluation (SCORE). SCORE is designed as decision support for direct use by RCN personnel. Through SCORE DRDC is conducting multiple phases of crewing analysis, as ship acquisition projects evolve. The analysis has included assessments done at sea in some cases to make sure they are as accurate as possible of watchkeeping demands and maintenance demands, etc., to identify the personnel needs. It is also exploring how technology has replaced personnel and the effect of this on operations. The RCN used SCORE to reevaluate baseline crew for the Canadian Patrol Frigate and it is being applied across multiple ship projects, most notably the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship. Dr. Chow s presentation was supplemented by a presentation entitled A Practitioner s View, by Lieutenant-Commander Ramona Burke, Director Naval Personnel and Training 5-3: Future Fleet. In her presentation she continued the discussion about how to ensure that the crews for the new RCN ships are the right size. She discussed the existing RCN regulations and ships standing orders, as well as international regulatory regimes, that affect crew sizes. She also discussed the SCORE analysis that has been undertaken to develop and validate the crew for the new AOPS. Using the analysis capability in SCORE has reduced the research time and effort, and reduced the trial and error that was characteristic in the past to find the right sized crew for a new class of ships. In order to broaden the discussion beyond Canada s national considerations, two European experts were invited to discuss the topic of crewing concepts. Both individuals have been involved in crewing research and operations for decades and the lessons that they shared from their national experience should be very relevant to Canada s NSPS efforts in the future. Bernd Kulmus from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems of Ger-

12 Executive Summary 13 many, made the first of two international presentations, entitled Reduced Crewing: Design Considerations. In this presentation, he discussed how the lessons of new design methods put in place for the F124 Air Defence Ships have been useful in the German Navy s new F125 frigates. The crewing considerations for the F125 Global Deployment Ship were considered at the very beginning of the class design. The frigates all have two crews of people, which are changed every four months. This is a 50% reduction in crew from the previous generation of frigates. Examples of this approach can be seen in areas such as the selection of the construction materials that are easy to maintain and clean with a small crew all the way to using simple engineering configurations that will ease maintenance routines and allow for the most efficient operations over a protracted period of time. It is clear that the German designers have paid close attention to the crewing issues although there are still questions to be answered about how the two-crew system can be made most effective. The final presentation in this section, Exploring New Trends in the Crewing of Modern Warships, was made by Nelly Chouvy, a defence scientist at the Directorate General of Armaments in France. She was presenting information about the French Navy s new Aquitaine-class FREMM frigate which has adopted a new approach to crewing. Its immediate predecessor, the De Grasse-class, employed a crew of 240, and the FREMM frigate has a crew of 108. As Chouvy noted, five years of research was conducted even before the contract was signed, and for seven years after the design was improved during building. The French designers utilized Human Factors Engineering Processes and crew optimization modeling tools when designing the ship. They developed simulators to test bridge and combat information centre designs, and preliminary studies enabled statements of requirements to fit 14 Human Capital and the NSPS the design to an optimized crew. This included provision for use of a specified optimal crew for all sea trials, so as to test the ship as it would be used in real life with this reduced crew. The FREMMs also employ a support concept referred to as reachback. This means that the ship is supported during its deployments by a dedicated group of staff who remain ashore and are available at all times to assist the at-sea operations of the ship, and are available to replace crew members at short notice. There are a number of questions that come up when examining the theme of determining an optimal crew size for the new classes of Canadian ships. Is there really a cost saving overall by employing reduced crew sizes? If the crew size at sea is small then you must develop additional shore maintenance support structures in order to compensate for the lightly manned crews. It would be helpful to take a closer look at the reachback method of operations that the French Navy has adopted for the FREMM ships. How expensive is it to sustain a highly trained manning pool ashore waiting to deploy? What would be the cost of producing a supply chain that could be responsive enough to replace damaged equipment on these ships at short notice from shore facilities? And how would this cost compare to having the crew strength already embarked in the ships to fix the systems that are degraded and/or damaged? Key questions arise about the nature of savings that can be accrued and about how long you can sustain high-tempo operations with reduced crews. The answers to these questions might have an important impact on the design options to be made for the ships to be produced under the NSPS.

13 Theme 3: Sustaining Human Capital Executive Summary 15 In the third theme of the workshop presenters considered the long-term human capital issues that will affect the ability of industry and government to sustain the workforce necessary to meet the demands of the NSPS. There are challenges of trying to bring the experienced workforce back into the shipbuilding sector from other parts of the country at the same time as the next generation of apprentices is trained to fill in behind the experienced labour force as it ages. As we have seen in the discussion of developing the human capital, there have been programs developed through educational institutions and government. Some initiatives that are being considered include establishing shipbuilding apprenticeship agencies to support individuals as they proceed through their training, and more effective alignment of personnel training programs with labour market information to ensure that the correct type and number of apprentices are being generated. There was also discussion of the need for Centres of Excellence in Shipbuilding and the importance of having qualified Canadians to fill all the jobs. It is clear that there will be many challenges ahead to build and retain the 30+ year workforce necessary to complete the shipbuilding envisaged in the NSPS. However, given that it has been a long time since Canadian shipyards have operated at full employment, the concerns about retaining a workforce for generations have not been comprehensively examined and addressed. These last two presenters provided some helpful context to this topic but clearly much more research will need to be undertaken to get a better appreciation of how to sustain the NSPS workforce through the life of the shipbuilding program. This section includes a summary of the panel presentations from this third theme. In his presentation entitled A Strong Workforce, Vice- 16 Human Capital and the NSPS Admiral (Retired) Peter Cairns, of the Shipbuilding Association of Canada, argued that we must keep the two key strategies of the NSPS foremost in mind. First, the NSPS is based on the idea of creating a continuous build program that will eliminate the traditional boom-and-bust cycle in the Canadian shipbuilding industry. Second, NSPS is predicated on a build in Canada policy and the policy doesn t work if the shipbuilding is done anywhere else. The NSPS allows Canadian firms to create Canadian equipment that will be put in Canadian ships. If Canadian firms are not seen as supporting their own navy, it will be more difficult for them to market their materials to other countries. Cairns was quite adamant that there is no benefit to Canadian industry, and Canada generally, to build NSPS ships offshore. This is why the strategy was adopted to build at home. But, in his opinion, the policy to utilize only proven technology in the ships is wrong because Canadians should be allowed to explore and develop new technology as they have done so successfully in the past. In his presentation, Shipbuilding Research: A Systems Approach, Ken Hansen from the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie University, argued that if we look at shipbuilding and the NSPS, we can see that the program faces a challenge that other programs/organizations may not. Shipbuilding is one of the most complex industrial activities known to humanity warships are extremely complex. In some cases, the large organizations that produce ships are so intricate and delicately balanced that the prospect of change is difficult to understand and manage. But in any new program such as the NSPS there will be change, and inherent in that is risk. As Hansen pointed out, risk must be recognized as a major factor and it must be managed. In his discussion he looked at examples of shipbuilding best practices in two international shipbuilding associations, the Danish Maritime Authority and the National Shipbuilding Research

14 Executive Summary 17 Program in the United States. He argued that we would be well served to create a similar organization in Canada because in institutions such as these collaboration is an essential way to preserve continuous innovation. He concluded that the Canadian national shipbuilding industry would benefit from a dedicated industrial association as marine industries and suppliers begin to grow in response to the NSPS. *** Beyond the individual presentations, some other themes emerged during the day s activities. Some of the participants observed that the NSPS has put in place a system that is more transparent than earlier procurement processes, and ironically this may mean that expectations will actually be higher than in the past. These expectations may be disappointed as much risk still lies in the fundamental uncertainty of political commitment and budgetary stability over the long term. Given the froth that has been seen in the media, there will need to be better management of expectations of all parties, including those of the public as the NSPS slowly proceeds. The government and the prime contractors will need to be more frank with the public and members of the defence industry to sustain a sense of goodwill in the industry, particularly given the significant amounts of public and private funding involved in this endeavour. The NSPS must open opportunities for companies at all levels of capitalization so that the benefits of this national program can be spread across the entire marine sector in Canada. Many participants voiced the concern that they have not seen a clear indication of what exactly is being done under the NSPS to avoid the traditional boom-and-bust cycle of Canadian naval procurement. As eliminating the boom-and-bust cycle via a plan for long-term building of ships was supposedly one of the 18 Human Capital and the NSPS underlying motives of the NSPS, this is a big concern. It will be extremely important to avoid any overall delays in the full construction plans envisaged for the NSPS. Any setbacks in the building schedule might force labour away from shipbuilding work during the very period that was supposed to be guided by a continuous build philosophy for 30 years of NSPS construction. If the price of oil remains low, it will be easier to lure skilled tradespeople back to the Maritimes from Alberta to work in shipbuilding. However, any labour that might have left the oilpatch for shipbuilding could return to that industry if a turnaround in the price of oil renews growth in the extraction industry. There were concerns expressed about the points of transition from one NSPS project to the next i.e., AOPS to CSC in Nova Scotia and JSS to Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker in British Columbia. Getting these points of transition wrong could create a gap between projects and create the kind of doubt that will prevent skilled people from leaving one employment situation for another in shipbuilding. As a result, it is critically important both for the success of the NSPS and for the employment prospects of people hoping for quality job opportunities in this industrial sector that the program be managed skillfully to avoid gaps and a return to the boom-and-bust cycle. In the event of unforeseen political, economic or other negative developments, it is essential that bridging plans be developed that mitigate the detrimental effects and continue the progress toward the strategic goal of developing the Canadian national industrial base. The NSPS represents the opportunity to undertake a recapitalization of the ageing fleets in the Royal Canadian Navy and other government departments. It is an opportunity to rejuvenate the Canadian shipbuilding industry, boost the capacity of Canadian business and provide jobs to people, in particular in British Columbia and Nova Scotia but also across the country.

15 Executive Summary Human Capital and the NSPS The NSPS also means an opportunity to reconsider the crewing aspects of the new ships in recognition of new technology and smaller military organizations. But these opportunities will not just materialize out of nowhere the shipbuilding industry needs skilled workers and new ships need trained crews. The human capital elements are, therefore, absolutely essential to making the NSPS succeed.

16 Summaries of Panel Presentations Theme 1: Building Human Capital Education and Training Programs An Overview of Select Technical Capabilities and Activities Ronald Pelot An Overview of Select Technical Capabilities and Activities, Dr. Ronald Pelot, Professor Dalhousie University, Industrial Engineering, Assistant Dean, Engineering Co-op Associate Scientific Director, MEOPAR NCE In this presentation Dr. Pelot described the Faculty of Engineering in general and the industrial engineering program in particular at Dalhousie University and the ways that these engineers could contribute to the design and building envisaged in the NSPS. Transforming the Labour Force to Meet the Demands of an Emerging Shipbuilding Industry, Rosaline Penfound, Vice- President, Academic, Nova Scotia Community College In her presentation, Vice-President Penfound described the current programs at Nova Scotia Community College and new programs that are in the works to ensure that NSCC graduates are well suited to contribute to shipbuilding and the NSPS. 21 What is currently the Faculty of Engineering at Dalhousie University began as Nova Scotia Technical College on 25 April On 3 June 1980, the government of Nova Scotia changed the name of the institution to the Technical University of Nova Scotia (TUNS). Its mission was to contribute to the development of Nova Scotia by providing high quality education, research and community and industry collaboration in architecture, computer science and engineering. TUNS merged into Dalhousie University on 1 April 1997 as the Faculty of Engineering. Dalhousie University, as part of an associated university system, allows students to start at the university or any of five other universities within the system, and graduate with a Bachelor of Engineering degree. Students who do not start at Dalhousie can do two years at one of the associated universities and transition seamlessly into third year at Dalhousie. The Faculty of Engineering currently has 1,783 Bachelor of Engineering students and 540 graduate students, including 125 PhD candidates. There are 628 international students (298 undergraduate and 330 graduate students). The faculty has five departments and eight undergraduate programs, including Master of Science, Master of Engineering and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in all programs. There are 98 faculty members, 43 staff 22

17 Building Human Capital 23 members and approximately $13 million annual research funding. The Faculty of Engineering produces practical engineers with excellent problem-solving skills, and a strong natural sciences background. The emphasis on real-world problems has created a high demand for the university s graduates and has made Dalhousie the preferred school for many major industrial companies, including GM, Shell, Teck, Vale, Fluor, Imperial, Goldcorp and Michelin. The Faculty has $12 million in research projected for , and has worked with over 200 different companies and agencies over the past three years, with most of these continuing. There are seven externally funded research chairs, with major contracts, with Boeing, Pratt and Whitney, Raytheon, Ultra Marine Systems, Nunavut, Halifax Water Commission and Intel. Among the programs offered by the Faculty of Engineering is industrial engineering (IE), established in It is the oldest program of its kind in Canada and is associated with the University of Toronto. Forty to 50 industrial engineering students graduate per year from Dalhousie. The department has a faculty of 10 full-time and two part-time professors. Industrial engineers design, create and manage systems that integrate people, materials, information and technology in productive ways. This could include maintenance systems for airlines, distribution systems for online retailers, scheduling systems for hospitals, layouts and control systems for factories, individual workstations, work and workspaces, warehouses and inventory systems, production systems, and global supply chains. IE design systems for many sectors, including: manufacturing; transportation and distribution; health care; 24 Human Capital and the NSPS environmental; government; utilities (phone, electricity, gas); communications; and natural resources (forestry, mines). Master of Business Administration (MBA) and industrial engineering students provide a good mix for supply chain management. It is easy to imagine how these engineers could make a big impact on shipbuilding. It would be essential to have engineers designing and monitoring the processes to ensure efficiency of construction and supply management. In their final year, student teams are partnered with a local client. Students, acting as consultants, analyse and design solutions to the client s problem. Some examples include: Project in Industry Irving Shipbuilding Ltd.: Students of the class of 2004 redesigned the factory layout and developed a new system for production planning. They reduced time to produce product by nearly 40%. Project in Industry Air Canada Jazz: The students of the class of 2011 designed a virtual centralized inventory system for the portable spare parts used in the Dash-8 aircrafts. There are a number of major research themes in the Industrial Engineering Department, including: maritime risk and safety (Pelot); maintenance and scheduling (Diallo, Ghasemi, and Gunn); engineering design and methodology (Johnston); manufacturing, warehousing and process industry design, planning and operations (Gunn, MacDonald, Tajbakhsh and

18 Building Human Capital 25 Venkatadri); health service systems optimization (Blake and Vanberkel); forest resource optimization (Gunn, MacDonald); ergonomics (Das); and, decision analysis (Barzilai). 26 Human Capital and the NSPS test young talent for long-term recruitment; gain new knowledge and fresh perspectives; develop leadership skills among staff; build brand on campus; and provide feedback on curricula. Engineering Cooperative Education In 2014 there are 398 engineering students participating in the cooperative education program, in a total of 535 total work terms, consisting of four months on the job and four months in the classroom. There are also 46 international students. The students are in eight disciplines: Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Environmental, Industrial, Materials, Mechanical and Mineral Resources. Our top three provinces for cooperative education work terms are: Nova Scotia, in the construction, electronics, communications, transportation, energy, sustainability/efficiency and research sectors; Alberta in the energy, oil, gas, mining and construction sectors; and Ontario in automotive, transportation and energy sectors.. The benefits of cooperative education for students are: apply academics to real work and vice versa; try different career paths before graduation; enter the job market with experience; network and make connections; and earn competitive wages. The benefits for employers are: boost operations; Changing Use of the Ocean Increased exploitation, coupled with the declining health of oceans, has led to an increased scale and frequency of marine emergencies as well as fundamentally new marine hazards. Canada is particularly vulnerable to the new emerging patterns with its vast coastline, dispersed emergency response assets and economic dependence on the oceans and coastal environment. This has been an incentive to focus more on oceans at Dalhousie. The university recognizes that there needs to be more investment in marine engineering educational resources. Dalhousie s Faculty of Engineering does not have a major maritime focus as, for example, there is at Memorial University Newfoundland. But Dalhousie does engage in ocean and marine research and activities, including marine communications and ship modeling, among other things. Ocean and offshore research projects in the Faculty of Engineering include: clean water, including ballast water treatment; autonomous underwater vehicles; offshore risk and safety; marine communications; underwater communications; advanced materials including corrosion and anti-corrosion coatings; ship traffic modeling.

19 Building Human Capital 27 Dalhousie s Ocean Sciences program of courses was established in 2012 as one of the Network of Centres of Excellence, a federal government initiative. The Centre of Excellence is headquartered at Dalhousie University. There are 28 research projects underway by 52 researchers from 13 Canadian universities and four federal government departments. An example of the work that is being undertaken at Dalhousie is the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR) which is a multi-disciplinary, multi-purpose, multi-sectoral department. Its mission is to enhance resilience and economic opportunity through an informed relationship with the changing marine environment. Programs intend to inspire and enable Canadian leadership in marine environmental observation, prediction and response. Some programs include Ocean Viewer which provides real-time ocean data (from temperatures to waves to animal sightings) from a wide variety of sources, Automatic Identification System, which is satellite monitoring of ships, and modeling for ice and ocean spills, etc. 28 Human Capital and the NSPS engineering program in the Faculty of Engineering. There are six industrial engineering programs in Canada, and 165 in the United States. The department has a co-op education program that has included student work at airlines, distribution systems and online retailers. The industrial engineers have also produced scheduling systems for hospitals, layout systems for plants and factories, individual workspaces, warehouse and inventory systems, and production systems all of these systems might be of interest to a shipbuilding project in the NSPS. With the development of the NSPS program, Dalhousie University industrial engineering graduates should be ready to participate in the construction of these new fleets of ships. Universities such as Dalhousie must continue to develop the attributes of their programs so as to take full advantage of the exciting professional opportunities in the NSPS. Conclusion As at universities across Canada, there are concerns in the Faculty of Engineering at Dalhousie as well. The university is facing the possibility of its student capacity reaching its maximum and needs additional infrastructure, labs and resources. However, Dalhousie University Faculty of Engineering provides the professional environment that encourages interaction between engineering students and students of various other disciplines. Dalhousie students are competitive within Canada s workforce of the future. Perhaps of most relevance to the NSPS is the industrial

20 30 Human Capital and the NSPS Transforming the Labour Force to Meet the Demands of an Emerging Shipbuilding Industry Rosaline Penfound Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) is one college distributed over 13 campuses across the length and breadth of the province. Many of these learning centres are full-service campuses with cafeterias, fitness facilities and specialized classrooms and equipment, while others provide courses designed to fit the needs of specific groups of learners and the communities in which they live. Within the college s mission of Building Nova Scotia s economy and quality of life through education and innovation, the institute s goal in relation to the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) is to assist in the transformation of the labour force to meet the demands of the emerging shipbuilding industry. There are future workforce challenges that we can predict as we see the decrease in the youth population entering schools in Nova Scotia. The decreasing enrolment constitutes a real challenge for the region to provide able young workers to take advantage of future opportunities like the NSPS. What NSCC hopes to do is to make sure that the looming demographic problem does not have too large a negative impact 29 on the economy by making sure that Nova Scotians are productive and have training for the careers of the future. NSCC delivers over 100 certificate, diploma and advanced diploma programs across the province within five program areas: Trades and Technology; Business; Applied Arts and New Media; Health and Human Services; and Access. For students with developing academic potential. In addition, NSCC also delivers apprenticeship training for 26 trades, in both face-to-face and online courses. Furthermore, it conducts bridging and outreach programming for Women Unlimited, the Black Business Initiative and community outreach. It also offers customized solutions to industries that require specialized workers, part-time studies that lead to licensing and certification, and applied research. The college maximizes and leverages its program offerings through flexible delivery. It has become apparent that community colleges will play an increasingly crucial role in a changing economy. Colleges are under more pressure than ever before to innovate and transform. Students need relevant and realistic occupational programs to give them the greatest opportunities to find work after graduation, requiring sustained and focused employer engagement. Advisory committees at colleges are no longer sufficient, and the trend now is to develop ongoing strategic partnerships with employers to align college programs with the needs of industry and business. Community colleges have generally accepted a greater role in expanding their relationships with industry to develop industry-validated, competency-based credentials to complement existing academic degrees. They work with industry to define